Word of the Day

Word of the Day: OBTRACTUOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin obtract-, past participial stem of obtractare,
variant of Latin obtrectare (to disparage) + ‑uous

EXAMPLE
“…and so made unlaufull assemble; and then and there the vayngloryouse Abbot of Eynesham callyd his seruants abowt hym and seid, How sey you, syrs? with obtractuouse words, and the vycar knoweth and can say yf he be a true man…”

From: Selections from the Record of the City of Oxford
Edited by William H. Turner, 1880
‘Proceedings in relation to certain Informations sent to the Privy Council by John Parkyns against the Abbots of Eynesham and Oseney’, Jan 18, 1537

Word of the Day: WAY-WORN

ETYMOLOGY
from way (a track, a road, a path) + worn

EXAMPLE
“…Say then, if England’s youth in earlier days
On Glory’s field with well train’d armies vy’d,
Why shall they now renounce that gen’rous praise?
Why dread the foreign mercenary’s pride?
Tho’ Valois brav’d young Edward’s gentle hand,
And Albret rush’d on Henry’s way-worn band,
With Europe’s chosen sons in arms renown’d,
Yet not on Vere’s bold archers long they look’d,
Nor Audley’s squires nor Mowbray’s yeomen brook’d;
They saw their standard fall, and left their monarch bound….”

From: Ode to the Country Gentlemen of England.
By Mark Akenside, 1758

Word of the Day: AMARICATE

ETYMOLOGY
from late Latin amaricat- ppl. stem of amaricare (to make bitter, to irrritate, to anger),
from amarus (bitter) + -icare

EXAMPLE
“…But what vertue so cold I pray you is there in Opium, which shall make me sleep though unwilling, and hot enough? If the coldnesse of the vapours, why do wines after dinner provoke to sleep? whether therefore is there one identity of heat and cold to the procuring of sleep? why therefore is cold singularly attributed to Opium? why are not hot things equally reckon’d narcotick and dormitive? how doth opium amaricate? and amaritude in the schools predominating is accounted hot? Therefore it is of unavoidable necessity, that the schools should chuse one of these; to wit, either that the coldnesse of opium is not exceeding, and by consequence that Opium doth not produce sleep by his cold…”

From: Matæotechnia Medicinæ Praxeōs, The vanity of the craft of physick
By Noah Biggs, 1651

Word of the Day: TENTIGINOUS

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin tentigo, -inis, (a tension, lecherousness) + –ous

EXAMPLE
“…O wife, the rarest man! yet there’s another
To put you in mind o’ the last.
Such a brave man, wife!
Within, he has his projects, and do’s vent ‘hem,
The gallantest! where you tentiginous? ha?
Would you be acting of the Incubus?
Did her silkes rustling move you?…”

From: The Divell is an Asse A Comedie
By Ben Jonson
First performed 1616
First published In Workes of Benjamin Jonson, 1631

Word of the Day: SYNONYMICON

ETYMOLOGY
from synonym + –icon, after lexicon

EXAMPLE
“…these were interspersed with original definitions of some contiguous terms peculiar to ourselves. His neat and useful, though not wholly trustworthy, book attained a second edition in 1783. It will not be superseded by the subsequent but inferior attempt of Mrs. Piozzi. Blair has deposited in his Rhetoric, and Dawson in his Philologia anglica, some further contributions to an english synonymicon …”

From: English Synonyms Discriminated
Introduction
By William Taylor, 1813

Word of the Day: CONTROVERTISTICAL

ETYMOLOGY
from  controvertist (a person who engages in argument or controversy) [from controvertere (in logic, to invert; to argue, to dispute, to oppose)] + ‑ical 

EXAMPLE
“…The Company began to Smile at this odd Rodomontade, but Eudoxus told him, in controvertistical Debates, there was no Appeal from Reason to the Sword; that it was more prudent to confess Errors, than to defend ’em; to cancel past Crimes, than to commit new ones …”

From: A Gentleman Instructed in the True Principles of Religion
By William Darrell. 1707

Word of the Day: AURIPOTENT

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin auri- (gold) + potentem (powerful)

EXAMPLE 1
“…For to descriue thair honest Ornament,
Thair riche array, and thair habillement:
My feble wit standis in extasie,
So bene, so big, and so Auripotent,
So ground michtie it was, and precellent:
It dullis far my small capacitie.
Thairfoir I most at this time let it be.
Bot ʒe sall wit thair was na thing absent
Of gold, nor silk, that ganit sic cumpanie….”

From: Ane treatise callit The Court of Venus deuidit into four buikis,
By John Rolland, 1575

EXAMPLE 2
“…and the vexatious vigilance with which the stern lady-patronesses of the time were wont to sift the merits of candidates, were intended as a protest against the auripotent nabobs and mill-owners who came purse in hand to demand admission…”

From: Belgravia
A London Magazine
Conducted by M.E. Braddon. Vol. IV, May-June, 1871
‘The Season’

Word of the Day: VERECUND

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin verecundus, from vereri (to reverence, fear)

EXAMPLE 1
“…And sum of thame I sall now specifie,
Quhilk to ressoun salbe correspondent.
Than said Venus with vult verecund,
Say quhat ʒe will and keip ʒow within bound
Not pretendand to argune throw ʒour will:
Bot to ressoun that ʒour Sermone resound,
Or ellis the lak to ʒour self sall redound …”

From: Ane treatise callit The Court of Venus deuidit into four buikis
By John Rolland, 1575

EXAMPLE 2
“…In my Father’s house,” says Christ, “are many mansions.” Verily, that appears to be also the case in some of His Scotch Evangelical servants’ houses here. And verecund Mr. McCosh, who will not venture to suggest any better arrangement of the heavens, – has he likewise no suggestion to offer as to the arrangement of No. 23, St. James’s Street?…”

From: Fors Clavigera: Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain,
By John Ruskin, 1873